JERUSALEM. ' 379 
the lid of a white marble coffin ^ : this was entirely chap. 
VIII 
covered with the richest and most beautiful ^ 
sculpture, but, like all the other sculptured 
work about the place, it represented nothing of 
the human figure, nor of any animal, but con- 
sisted entirely of foliage and flowers, and 
principally of the leaves and branches of the 
vine. 
As to the history of this most princely place History 
of burial, we shall find it difficult to obtain cemetery. 
much information. That it was not what its 
name implies, is very evident; because the 
Sepulchres of the Kings of Jitdah were in Mount 
Sion. The most probable opinion is maintained 
by Pocoche^, who considered it as the Sepulchre 
oi Helen, Queen of Adiabexe. De Chateaubriand 
has since adopted Pocockes opinion \ But both 
these writers, speaking of the Pyramids men- 
tioned by Josephus at Helenas Monument % 
have overlooked the testimony of Eusebius upon 
the subject, and of his commentator Falesius. 
(2) This is engraved in Le Hruyn's Travels. See Plate facing p. 18o. 
torn. II. Voy. au Levant. Puris, 1725. 
(3) Description of the East, vol. II. p. 20. Lond. 1745. See the Plan 
of these Sepulchres, beautifully engraved in the Fifth Plate of that 
volufee. 
(4) See Trav. in Greece, Palmt. &c. vol. II. p. 106". Lond. 1811. 
(5) Joseph. Antiq. lib. xx. c, 2. Colon. 1691. 
